50 After 50: After rare sub.-500 season, No. 32 Suns rebound with long winning streak

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 32 — 1990-91 Southeastern

AUGUSTA, Ill. — On paper, the 1989-90 basketball season would appear to have been one to forget at Southeastern.

With three sophomores and two juniors in the starting lineup, the Suns posted a 12-15 record. The only sub-.500 record at Southeastern an 11-12 record in 1969-70, the first year Augusta High School and Bowen High School were consolidated under Carroll Herman. 

Bryan Brickner had been hired two years earlier and was being groomed to take over as the varsity coach. However, he chose in May 1990 to leave and go to graduate school.

“We got quality minutes and everything (during the 89-90 season), but you know, that year was the first year for my class and the class ahead of us to really ever taste defeat,” said Brad Gooding, a junior on the 1990-91 team. “It was hard to take. When we started playing organized basketball back in the early 1980s as fourth, fifth and sixth graders, both of our groups had been successful, winning games and having having postseason success.

“To taste that first bit of losing, it was kind of an eye opener. We said if we want to go on and do well the next two years, we’re gonna have to work a little bit harder and step our game up. It was a little humbling, to say the least, to doubt yourselves. It was just kind of a learning experience for us. You made the most of it.”

The 1990-91 season started slowly under Coach Mike Fray, who previously guided the Suns for seven years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After defeating Jacksonville Routt in the first game of the Viriginia Tournament during Thanksgiving week, the Suns lost to Virginia and Winchester and barely edged Triopia 56-53.

“We got off to a little bit of a shaky start,” Gooding said. “I think the coaches were trying to figure out what was going to be our best lineup. I started the first few games. Then Coach Fray thought it would be better for Tim Kerr to start and for me to come off the bench. As the year got going, we all just kind of learned our roles and figured things out.”

The Suns figured out how to win their next 25 in a row. They averaged 68.9 points per game, forcing an average of 23 turnovers per game. They beat opponents by an average of 19 points per game. Junior Jason Ippensen was the team’s leading scorer at 15.4 points per game. Junior Randy Long added 12 points per game. 

One of the biggest victories in the Suns’ winning streak was a 59-55 decision at Pittsfield on Jan. 31.

“At that point, it was like, OK, we’re not too bad,” Gooding said. “You talk about a tradition down there. That team had tasted a little bit of success over the last few years. For us to go down there and beat them was kind of an eye opener to us. It was like, ‘We can we can do this. We could do something here. Let’s keep rolling.”

Southeastern was ranked No. 14 in the final Class A regular season poll. It opened the regional in Mount Sterling by overcoming a two-point halftime deficit to defeat Beardstown 62-53, then survived scrappy Industry 60-51 in the title game. The Suns edged Liberty 46-43 in the sectional semifinal, with Gooding scoring a game-high 16 points. They claimed the sectional title with a 65-57 victory over Bushnell-Prairie City.

The Suns’ hopes of making the first state tournament appearance in school history ended with a 61-44 setback at the super-sectional in Macomb to eventual state champion Pittsfield.

“We felt confident going into that game,” Gooding said. “This is by no means an excuse whatsoever, but we had some sickness going through our team at that time. Were we at 100 percent? No, you still put your uniform on, you still lace up your shoes and you go out there to play. Pittsfield had some experience from a couple years previous, and it just didn’t work out for us that night.

“We never forgot that feeling of walking out of Western Hall that night. Pittsfield kind of showed us that we do have to bring it every night. That was something that drove us to to be as good as we could be our senior year.”

Gooding went into education and now is in his sixth year as the principal of Rushville-Industry High School. He also been a high school basketball official for 29 years.

“Seems like I’m at a gym every night, whether it’s supervising at our gym or I’m somewhere else officiating,” he said.